Something to think about... (1 Viewer)

[_muse_]

My teacher has put forward the question:
"The Real Inspector Hound is a lighthearted spoof and nothing more. Discuss"

After many class debates there seems to be no real conclusion for our class, what does everyone else think? Is it just a spoof, something to laugh at? or is it paying tribute to the popularity of the features of crime fiction? or is it perhaps something completely different..

 

[kami]

IMO it is Tom Stoppard having his wonderful joke on whoever sees it and takes it too seriously, like one of those russian doll things that have all those layers but suprise suprise there is nothing at the end

 

[ameh]

It's got the absurdist theatre tagged to it so I guess you can lean towards the light-hearted spoof discussion

 

[Aimz- Lou.]

Stoppard said he designed it to make a statement on the absurdist and postmodernist ideas of the theatrical society during the time, so i guess you could take that approach. But it is also a text of the crime fiction genre, not so much paying tribute, but subverting the conventions and satirising the formulaic manner in which crime fiction texts are written.

 

[monique66]

I remember reading a comment by Stoppard on this play and he said something about trying to present an image to the audience that is totally improbable. That's the way his texts work, you have to suspend disbelief for it to work. Then again, it's not all fun and games. There is a degree of seriousness in the play. For instance it was written during the Vietnam war- a time of chaos- which is brilliantly reflected in his work. I mean, perhaps is just simply subverting the genre for parody's sake but perhaps he is also trying to show us the world is simply irrational and that simply believing that a rational conclusion will develop may not solve anything. There are many ways to interpret the question, remembering both the ideas of context and values and how these have impacted Stoppard during his writting.

 

[gorgo31]

Thanks to research from EE2, I take Real Inspector Hound as being part of the Theatre of the Absurd and closely interlinked with existentalist philosophy. It's actually pretty hard to separate "good" Absurd plays from existentialism - in the same way one could watch "Waiting for Godot" and dismiss it as farce or study it as being concerned with existential ideas.

However, with that said, I think Stoppard could actually be satirising existentialist philosophy and the Theatre of the Absurd, especially evident in Birdboot's "I think we are entitled to ask, where is God?".

It's a whole lot of fun, too

 

[ishq]

IMO it is Tom Stoppard having his wonderful joke on whoever sees it and takes it too seriously, like one of those russian doll things that have all those layers but suprise suprise there is nothing at the end

I agree with this
Its just him making fun of Agatha Christie and the The Mousetrap and us, poor disillusioned souls, trying to bring a superly complex 'purpose' to it.
He is actually pretty obvious about it - its a post modern text and so he is able to parody himself (and his other works eg Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) by saying, (something along the lines of) "yes....this work (referring to the play) explains the nature of human existence..." (Moon)

So, its just a spoof, in my un-PhD'd opinion.
Just like AOS.
DAMN Journeys...

 

[_muse_]

our trials for ext are on friday and we REALLY havent learnt anything whatsoever about trih apart from the fact that we are supposed to have handed in an essay about the question of this thread. but i swear the teacher is just looking too deeply into the text, looking for some kind of meaning that isnt there, and its confusing the hell out of me